We’ve written before about how it’s suburban poverty that produces headlines like “Memphis is #1 in Poverty.”
These are rankings for the MSA, and it is the anomalous high ranking of poverty outside of Memphis that puts the region in that top spot. The area outside Memphis is #8 in poverty, and among large cities, Memphis is #14.
Between 2000 and 2010, the poverty rate in Memphis increased 26%. Meanwhile, Memphis suburbs saw their poverty rate climb by 46%.
The following infographic about suburban poverty is provided to us by Scarlett Jackson of Best MSW Programs:
For decades Memphis has been well-known for being an extremely poor city.
The deep poverty and related socio-economic problems of the city have expanded into suburban areas as the city annexed neighboring communities to try and prop up the tax base from all those who have fled the city’s huge problems.
Poverty in Memphis is a cancer, and unfortunately there is no real cure.
“…unfortunately there is no real cure.” Could you post a more idiotic statement? Of course there are very real ways to address poverty. To compare it to cancer shows a complete lack of education on both issues. Interesting, b/c such ignorance is strongly linked with poverty.
Suggesting that there is no cure is nothing short of asinine. As we have written before, there are proven programs and strategies, but we have to bring them to scale. The notion that things are what they are and nothing will change is not based on evidence or science.
I agree that poverty is very much like a cancer. While not totally impossible to remedy, it does appear there have been very few effective strategies for the cancerous life cycle of poverty in Memphis, or any other city.